Clint Faraday Mysteries Collection B :This Job is Murder Collector's Edition (4 page)

He got back to his place late enough that he
went to dinner with Judi and Ben to be caught up on the latest
gossip. Not much new. Both of them knew what to try to learn if
they didn’t know why. He would go to Popa in the morning. The
answers were there if he could find the right questions.

Neighborly Visit

It was a little rough on the bays, but Clint
got to Isla Popa around eight o’clock. Most of the men were at work
that late. Many of the women were at home. Clint stopped to talk
with Dona and Yajaira and have a cup of coffee. They didn’t know
much about any of the things happening off the island and knew of
things that had happened on the island only from what they saw and
heard. They did know that a body was found up toward the
southeastern tip. There was some problem about that whole mess
because of the way those people from Colón were trying to force
people off their land there. The Martín family had started a big
row about it, but had suddenly become silent. Paulo used to come to
the little store/bar at least twice a week with his wife and young
daughter, but hadn’t come in at all for more than two weeks.

Those people trying to buy the land for a
fourth of what it was worth were nothing but gangsters and cheap
thugs. The body found was working with someone that had something
to do with that and so were two or three others.

Clint thanked them and headed for his boat.
It was a little rough on the tip, but he went around and found the
dock to Martín’s place in a little indentation in the shoreline. He
went in to see a bright shiny new sign that said to keep out.
Privado. He went in and tied to the dock. A man Clint had seen a
few times around Bocas and Almirante came from the house with a big
obvious thug type. Clint waved and the thug said, “Hey, gringo
stupido! Can’t you read?”

“
Yeah, fuckhead. What do you want me to
read to you?

“
Hi, Paulo. Haven’t seen you around
town for a few days and was wondering if the storm did any damage
here. Some places were hit pretty hard by the winds.”

The thug grabbed at Clint, who spun and came
up under his chin to knock him into the water. He grabbed for the
pistol in his belt when he came up, but Clint was over him with a
pole that had been laying on the dock. He very calmly said to bring
his hands up empty or he would suddenly be fish food.

The thug brought his hands into view and
began swimming toward the rocky shore at the dock base when Clint
waved him that way. Clint walked along above him with the pole at
the ready. When the hood got to where he could stand he moved on in
with his hands held at head level. Clint reached out and took the
revolver from his belt when he was in knee deep water and told him
to come on out onto the shore. He turned around on the bank and
swung at Clint, throwing his other arm up to ward off the pole –
which Clint had already dropped as he slipped to the side. The thug
expected him to come up like before and was ready for an attack
from that direction.

Clint didn’t come up like before. He came in
from the side to where the thug had to twist toward him just in
time to have a jarring right hook knock him to his knees. Martín
cried for Clint to stop! He was making everything worse!

Clint saw the fear in Martín’s eyes. He put a
couple of things together right then and knocked the thug over his
ear with the pistol butt. The thug dropped and was sprawled on the
ground.

“
Tell me about it,” Clint demanded.
“What’s it about?”

“
I don’t know!” he wailed. “They want
this land for some reason. I won’t sell so they took my wife and
daughter somewhere and say they will kill them if I don’t sell.
They will pay me less than half of what it’s worth if I did want to
sell it. If I get money they have all the legal papers and things
to say it is theirs because they paid the money!”

“
The one who was killed here night
before last was one of them?”

“
Killed? I don’t know about anyone
being killed. The police came yesterday morning and asked Paco some
questions, but he made me stay in the house. I don’t know what it
was about. He said it was just checking about the storm, but it
wouldn’t be that because they never come out this far for that kind
of thing.”

“
Was this shithead here night before
last?”

“
No. He tied me up in the afternoon and
left and didn’t come back until early sunrise yesterday morning.
The police came about an hour later.

“
If they know about this they will kill
my wife and daughter. We have to do something!”

“
I think I’ve heard a couple of things
that will make it a bit easier to get them back. Let’s get this
punk conscious again,” Clint said as he took a small pail and
filled it with water from the bay. He threw it in the thug’s
face.

Paco, as Martín had named him, came to, sat
up, then suddenly lunged hard for Clint’s legs with a long
switchblade in his right hand. Clint stepped aside and brought a
booted foot down hard on the hand with the knife in it. The thug
squealed.

Clint said, in a very calm but icy voice,
“I’m going to ask you a few questions that you will answer and
maybe live or refuse to answer and die. I’ll use the methods on you
that you used on Carlos, capich?”

Paco grunted. He was holding his broken hand
tight against his stomach with the other hand.

“
Capich?” Clint said, even
colder.

“
They’ll kill me if I say
anything!”

“
And I will if you don’t. Hell of a
position to be in, isn’t it?

“
What’s this crap about?”

He looked like he would cry. His eyes darted
around, but his position was hopeless and he knew it. Clint might
actually torture him to death for all he knew. It was something he
had done a few times.

“
I don’t know. Some kind of map or code
or something.”

Clint thought. There were some maps from when
they discovered a pirate’s chest full of gold and jewels. It was on
a case where they were looking for a chest of money. Millions. They
found two, one of which was a pirate’s chest that some drug cartel
people from Colombia had put a few million dollars in cash in fifty
years ago. Those maps were checked and accounted for to the least
detail. Someone was running a scam against a mob boss with phony
maps? Was anyone that stupid?

Clint asked what Carlos had done to make him
get the treatment Rauz got. That missed in a surprising way.

“
I don’t know who Rauz is supposed to
be. The police told me about Carlos Mendez.”

“
Rauz is the one you tortured and
killed by Solarte.”

Paco looked like a trapped animal. “No. That
was Santamaria. Rosendo Santamaria. He tried to steal something
from some people in David and we sent a message with the way he was
handled. You can’t let that start or every two-bit creep in town
will be stealing from you.

“
Okay. You know about that so you know
I did the same thing to this Carlos character. Him, I caught
sneaking around here when I came back. I found out he was working
for somebody else who was interested in the maps and were trying to
find a way to cut themselves in before he became incapable of
saying anything.”

“
You mean someone is so stupid they’d
try a stupid scam on TWO gangster bosses?” Clint said, unbelieving.
“I thought it was beyond phenomenally stupid to try to con
one!”

“
Scam?” The hood was very interested
all of a sudden.

“
I want to talk to your boss now, but
first get Martín’s family back here. This is a stupid way to handle
this kind of thing. I’ll make a deal where your boss gets to do all
the treasure hunting he wants, but he’s NOT to involve innocent
people or I’ll call my Russian friends in Panamá and your boss and
everyone associated with him will become statistics in a couple of
hours, at most. You only think you know how to cause pain. It was
how some of the Ruskies made their living for years before they
came here.”

Almost anyone in organized (or, as seemed too
apparent in this case, disorganized) crime in Panamá is terrified
of the Russian mob. They have the reputation of being totally
merciless and more than a little crazy.

“
Get the family released.
Now!”

“
I can’t get them to do anything! I
just take orders! I ain’t no boss! Fuck!”

“
Just tell them that Clint Faraday says
he’ll get his Russian friends to act if they don’t cooperate.
They’ll know I’m not the type to bluff. I have a small bit of a
reputation myself.”

“
I can call them and try. It wasn’t my
idea to grab the woman and kid. I told them that was stupid because
it would get too many others after their asses. You keep this stuff
in the family. Somebody else, you don’t know what’s going to
happen! THIS kind of stuff can happen!

“
I ain’t got a cel.”

Clint handed him his cell, then had to punch
the number and put the phone on speaker because Paco couldn’t hold
onto the phone and punch the number with one hand broken. He got
someone he called “Juan” and argued a minute. He said to put the
boss on the phone. It was an emergency. Juan refused.

“
Mira, estupido! Diga Ger ... el es
urgencia muy muy mal!” (Listen, stupid! Tell ? it’s a bad and
urgent thing!)

Clint caught that and quickly added two and
two. He remembered what he heard in David. “Tell him we know who
all of you are and we don’t bluff! Maybe Geraldo, better known as
Mr. D, has more sense than you, Juan Marinni! Clear enough?”

There was a silence, then another voice came
on. Paco gave him the message, then passed the phone to Clint.

“
What is this about a scam?”

“
First, the Martín family gets sent
back home and are unharmed in any way.”

There was a short silence. “That was a very
large mistake. I will grant that Paco was correct in that. They are
not harmed and will be returned immediately if you will but
guarantee that no action will be taken for our detaining them.”

“
IF they are unharmed, you have my
guarantee – where they are concerned.”

“
You say I may seek the treasure you
claim is not there without the application of pressure?”

“
That was the stupidest part of this. I
know it’s the way your group handles things, but it’s time you move
into the real world. You may use any of the methods the police and
I used to find the treasure. You will simply give Mr. Martín or
anyone else whose land the stuff’s found on ten percent of the net.
Nobody gets hurt, there’s not a bunch of silly plots and plans and
your kids won’t be ashamed of what their Pop was. Maybe you’ll live
and stay out of the pen long enough to have kids if you don’t
already. I didn’t check on that.”

“
He will agree to that?” Paulo looked
surprised, shrugged and nodded.

“
Certainly! You wouldn’t if it was on
your land and you wouldn’t have to do a single thing yourself to
find it?”

“
Probably not. I’m not the sharing
type. I see your point, however, and will agree.

“
What is this about a scam?”

“
If your map is from that deal where we
dug up those two chests, every map Miss Halverson had was checked
thoroughly. One of the chests was there. The other two had been
found as much as ninety years ago. There weren’t any maps secretly
hidden or any other cache of maps found. The other pirate wasn’t
nearly successful enough to have much hidden and the Canos would
handle anyone who got any map to what they consider as their
property. Despite it all there’s still a lot of power with some
people in that. There are no Canos alive who were involved. There
are several people alive who are not Canos or not known to be
Canos. Don’t forget how many people here have two families that
don’t know diddly about each other.”

“
So I have heard. Very well. May I
again speak with Paco?”

Clint passed the phone back. Paco talked a
moment. He told Geraldo about Carlos. He then passed the phone back
to Clint.

“
Mr. Faraday, do you know who this
Carlos person was working with?”

“
No. I also have to find Rauz. Paco
says he wasn’t the one who he hit over by Solarte. That leaves some
interesting possibilities open. That leaves questions I’ll get
answers to.”

“
If you will be so kind as to inform me
should you learn that name?”

Clint thought about it. “I’ll give a
conditional yes to that. No one else not directly involved will be
bothered.”

“
Thank you. The people will be back
home within the hour. Paco will leave the area. I’m certain that
you will describe his part in this to your police associates. As a
favor, please wait until you can report that the family is home
safely and see that Paco has means and opportunity to escape the
area..”

“
For this, they can pick him up
anywhere they find him.”

“
Only in Panamá. I will assure you that
he will not too long remain in Panamá.”

Clint agreed. It would be better for these
type to handle it themselves. So long as they only killed and
tortured others of the same type in the same business it was saving
the police time and money.

Clint waited at the dock after taking Paco
there until a taxi brought the Martíns to Tierra Oscura. He took
them home and headed back to Bocas.